There’s a famous saying, “Voting is your civic duty.” It means that as a citizen of the United States of America, your one job is to vote in the presidential election. Why is voting so important? Voting in the United States has a long history with certain ethnicity and gender groups fighting for suffrage, the right to vote. It also is important that each individual puts their say into what they believe in, especially because the votes will affect their and their children’s lives. 

Some people may claim that voting is a definition of democracy and that’s because democracy bases its principles on the choices of the people. This idea was so important to the Founding Fathers because it’s what made the United States of America separate from Britain, the former rulers of the land and people before the American Revolutionary War. The dictionary definition for democracy is, “a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.” In the United States, democracy began in the 1630s, it was a gradual process so there isn’t a specific time.

One of the major factors in the history of voting is the fight for women’s voting rights. As stated in the National Archives, on June 2, 2021, the article, “Woman Suffrage and the 19th Amendment”, in the 19th Amendment in the Constitution grants women’s suffrage. Sexism against women was a very big problem in the 1800’s and early 1900’s, this made it sound preposterous to men to let women vote. Women didn’t have many rights at this time, they’d even suffer absurd and unreasonable punishments for participating in things that we today view as normal rights. Lucy Burns is one of the 32 women who fought for women’s suffrage on November 14, 1917, in the “Night of Terror” and were beaten and given unreasonable punishments. Burns was left in a cell, chained up with her hands above her head, and fed spoiled food. Burns and some other women that were arrested for their participation in the protests refused to eat and the police reacted by force-feeding them through their noses. This horrible treatment that Lucy Burns and thousands of other suffragists endured was the main factor in finally convincing President Woodrow Wilson to support women’s suffrage. So many women suffered and fought for their rights, the rights that every woman in the United States nowadays finds normal and a regular part of life.

The 15th Amendment was passed on February 26, 1869, and was ratified on February 3, 1870. The 15th Amendment gave the right for African American men to vote. Racism has always been a big problem and still is. It was only five years prior to the 15th amendment being ratified that slavery was abolished so just in that decade, there were a lot of big changes for African Americans in the United States. There were three consecutive marches called the Selma Marches in 1965 that stretched from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. The marches were peaceful protests and they only had pure intentions of walking into the courthouse of Marion and peacefully fighting for their voting rights. When they were marching, the state troopers started fighting back and during that they shot a protester named Jimmie Lee Jackson and after eight days, Jackson died. Viola Liuzzo was also killed in one of the marches by the KKK. These three marches were a very big turning point for the suffrage of African American men. Another big problem is that it is estimated that 6.1 million African Americans are stripped of their rights before they even turn eighteen years of age meaning they are never given the right to vote. There is a law that, no matter what you were charged with, you are given your voting rights back after you get out of prison. For many African Americans that law does not apply to them. Although there is still a lot of unfairness towards African Americans, a very large step towards equality was taken in 1870 when African American men were given the right to vote. All of this information was found on National Geographic, last updated on October 19, 2023, in the article, “Why Voting is Important.”

There are many reasons people don’t vote such as lack of money and poverty. This is because people experiencing these hard circumstances aren’t usually focusing their time to watch the news and worrying about politics. This is kind of contradictory, only because a lot of people experiencing poverty, especially at a young age, are in a position because of school debt. College debt is one of the main reasons to vote. Depending on who is elected as president, the prices of college may go down, decreasing student debt. Also, the chosen president has a large impact on how the economy will be in the near future. When the economy is down, there aren’t as many job opportunities and it’s harder to pay for your basic needs. Health care is another large expense in most people’s lives, but this too can be affected by who the United States citizens elect for president. In the website AACT Now Vote, the article “Top 10 Reasons to Vote”, viewed on April 17, 2024, explains the main reasons why everyone in the United States should vote by stating “Increasing the number of people that vote in each election means better representation, more funding to our communities, and a better quality of life. Politicians listen to two things, money and votes. If we work together as a community and increase voter turnout, then our state and national legislators will listen to our needs. Education, healthcare, immigration, infrastructure, the economy, our veterans, etc. are all affected by our vote.”

The right to vote has been bravely fought for by thousands of people. Thousands of women and African Americans have lost their lives just trying to get the right to vote for president in the United States. Those heroic people fought because they understood what each of their votes did for the elections and what the elections did for the people. Like their job opportunities,  the economy, healthcare, college debts, etc. Voting is your civic duty, it’s your duty to stand up for your rights and protect the rights others fought to give us. Many people fought and died for you to have this right, make use of it.